Is the Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard worth buying?

If you fly American Airlines regularly, you might consider getting one of them Citi or Barclays co-branded card.

At the top of the hierarchy is Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (see exchange rates and fees), offers the most AA-specific perks of any credit card. But it comes with a hefty annual fee of $595.

So is it worth it – both in the first year and from the second year onwards? Let’s do the math.

Related: How to Decide If a Credit Card Annual Fee Is Worth Paying

Welcome bonus

The Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard Currently offering 100,000 bonus miles after spending $10,000 in the first three months of account opening. This bonus is worth $1,700, based on TPG June 2024 valuation.

100,000 miles is highest welcome bonus we’ve ever seen on this cardwith 70,000 miles as standard offer.

That means the value of the 100,000-mile welcome bonus would cover the annual fee for nearly three years—and that doesn’t even account for the other perks we’ll get to. (The 70,000-mile bonus would cover two years.)

Lounge access

Arguably, this card’s most valuable ongoing benefit is that it’s free Admirals Club membership you receive — when you present your same-day boarding pass for an eligible flight — each year you have the card.

The annual membership fee is $700-$850, depending on your membership level. Since this card has an annual fee of $595, it doesn’t make sense to buy the Admirals Club membership separately (unless you’re not eligible for it).

You will have access to nearly 50 Admirals Clubs and over 60 partner lounge worldwide when flying American or one of the Oneworld partner. Notably, this includes Alaska Lounge in hubs like Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

You can bring your immediate family members (spouse or domestic partner and children under 18) or up to two guests. And they don’t have to be on the same flight as you — just any American or Oneworld flight with same-day boarding passes.

Living in Austin, Texas, I often fly through AA’s largest hub, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. This means I can use the lounge when departing in Austin and when connecting through Dallas Fort Worth.

I also appreciate selective access. Qantas Airlines Club and the Qantas International Business Lounge when I fly home to Australia and travel around the country.

Travel benefits

This card offers valuable benefits when flying with American, including priority check-in at the business class counter (where available) and priority boarding (where available) for you and up to eight passengers on the same reservation.

You also get your first checked bag free on domestic flights with American Airlines. (Note that this is only for domestic flights; I recently paid $35 when traveling to Mexico, forgetting about the limitations of this perk.)

Plus you can get 25% off Buy food and drinks on the flight (Wi-Fi not included) and get up to $100 in statement credit for Global Entry/TSA PreCheck. (I recommend maximizing your credit by applying for Global Entry since it includes PreCheck anyway.)

Additionally, the card includes tourism protectionsuch as trip cancellation, trip interruption, trip delay, lost baggage protection and car rental insurance.

And have There are no foreign transaction feesmaking this card a great choice for international travel.

Elite status

If chased AAdvantage Elite Status important to you, this card will help you achieve it. You will earn 1 Loyalty Point for every mile you earn from a purchase.

On top of that, you’ll receive a 10,000 Loyalty Points bonus when you reach 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status-qualifying year. An additional 10,000 Loyalty Points bonus will be granted when you reach 90,000 Loyalty Points in the same year.

Statement credit

Citi introduced three new statement credits in July 2023 renew card to help offset the increase in annual fees from $450 (no longer available) to $595. You’ll get:

• Up to $120 back on eligible Avis or Budget rentals each calendar year
• Up to $120 back on qualifying Grubhub purchases (up to $10 statement credit on billing statement each month)
• Up to $120 in Lyft credit ($10 Lyft credit per month), but you must take three qualifying rides per month Firstly to receive this credit

Grubhub credit is the only credit I’ve used in the past year. I find it easy to max out the $10 monthly credit by ordering takeout when I’m on the go.

Since I tend to rent cars from Europcar, National Car Rental or Hertz, I don’t take full advantage of the car rental credit, but it would be easy to use the credit for one car rental per year if Avis or Budget offered offer a good price for a journey.

And I don’t value the Lyft perk because you don’t get the $10 credit until you take three (non-discounted) rides in a month. Instead, I use Chase Sapphire Reserve® to earn 10 points per dollar spent on Lyft purchases (through March 2025).

Related: Frequent Uber or Lyft User? These Are the Best Credit Cards for You

Earn and redeem miles

If you’re looking to boost your points earned across multiple programs, we recommend spending on one Transferable loyalty card. However, if you want to specifically maximize your AAdvantage miles balance, this card will help you earn:

• 10 miles per dollar spent on eligible car rentals and hotel reservations through American’s car rental and hotel booking websites, respectively
• 4 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases (increases to 5 miles per dollar for the remainder of the calendar year after you spend $150,000 on all purchases in a calendar year)
• 1 mile per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases

According to our June 2024 valuations, AAdvantage miles are the most valuable of any U.S. airline program. They’re worth significantly more (at 1.7 cents per mile) than United miles (1.35 cents) and Delta SkyMiles (1.15 cents).

After receiving this card after renewing in mid-2023, I redeemed part of the welcome bonus I received for a luxury flight. I used 70,000 miles plus $174 for a one-way business class flight on Qatar Airways’ excellent flight QSuite from Doha to Houston.

With this flight retailing for $3,910 one-way, I got a great value of 5.3 per mile from this redemption, more than triple TPG’s valuation of AAdvantage miles.

Related: Best Uses of American Airlines AAdvantage Miles

Authorized User

Ultimately, this card is a great option if you want your friends and family to have access to the Admirals Club for cheap.

You can add up to three authorized users for a total of $175 (which works out to about $58 per user), and additional authorized users for $175 each after that.

Each authorized user will receive Admirals Club access (with same-day boarding passes for qualifying flights) for themselves and up to two companions. Just note that authorized users only get Admirals Club access, as opposed to full Admirals Club membership.

Bottom line

In short, if you frequently fly American Airlines, this card is a great choice. Furthermore, if you want to access the Admirals Club and don’t have AA or Oneworld elite status, this card is a no-brainer.

Maximizing statement credits can effectively reduce the cost of the annual fee. It’s great for adding up to three authorized users for a total of $175. This card also helps you earn Elite status by earning Loyalty Points on everyday spending and when you reach certain spending thresholds.

However, if you don’t get value from lounge access, I would recommend one of these Citi/AA’s more affordable credit card.

To learn more about this card, read on Full Review of Citi / AA Executive World Elite Mastercard.

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Register here: Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard credit card

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